Authors

Subscribe to us

Site search

Search for:

Miniposts

Keep socialist blog En Passant going - donate now If you want to keep a blog that makes the arguments every day against the ravages of capitalism going and keeps alive the flame of democracy and community, make a donation to help cover my costs. And of course keep reading the blog. To donate click here. Keep socialist blog En Passant going.
More... (4)

As has been said many times in this Parliament, the Government is absolutely committed to doing all that is necessary to bring an end to the culture of lawlessness, intimidation and bullying in the politics industry.

The passage of these bills into law will ensure that political work is carried out fairly, efficiently, lawfully, productively for all Australians.

I know the ALP is not going to do a Corbyn or a Sanders and electrify a mass base with pro-people policies and get them to fund its activities with small donations. Certainly a ban allowing only small donations is not going to change a party whose 33 years of neoliberalism are ingrained into its soul and parliamentary representatives. The ALP is not going to democratise and give power to its members because those members are, like the rest of Australian society, by and large well to the left of politicians. The task is to build a new politics, a politics that puts people first. That is what I am trying to do.

Bob Douglas (Canberra Times Letters 19 August) has given eloquent voice to the despair many many Australians feel about their elected ‘representatives’. However I don’t think, as Bob seems to, the answer lies just in searching for better candidates. The problem is systemic. By all means consider forming new electoral alliances to fight for better representatives. But understand that the forces at play are much deeper and more entrenched than can be solved by having that nice Mr Turnbull or likable Mr Albanese (or variations on that theme) in the Lodge rather than the two pathetic alternatives offered up to us at the moment.

I wrote this about parliamentary entitlements rorting back in October 2013. It has some interesting numbers in relation to senior Government figures including the PM and Brandis. I finish up by saying:

‘The AFP won’t investigate possible misuse of parliamentary expenses independently or systemically. They and the politicians are all part of the ruling class and won’t do anything to undermine the facade of parliamentary respectability.’

Nothing over the last few weeks has undermined my argument of almost 2 years ago. It has only reinforced it.

The shocking revelations of late about politicians in Australia are not an aberration. They would be replicated in parliament after parliament across the country and the globe, if we investigated them. The whole system is rotten. It produces rotten politicians to do the bidding of rotting capital.

Let me leave you with this thought. There are even bigger crimes politicians commit than being open for business, bad enough as that is. We’ll see Hockey on budget night send many many more people into poverty so capital can luxuriate. That is the crime we should be fighting against now as well.